This section is devoted to the recent research carried out in the field of
the Qur'anic studies. The content will be primarily the interesting papers
published in peer-reviewed journals. Some material is alsothe excerpts
from books. The aim of bringing such material on the web is to disseminate interesting
information which otherwise would end up getting stacked in the libraries unread.

The articles in the journals are reproduce by the permission of the authors
(and in some case even the journals) as they are under the copyright act. Please
do not reproduce or redistribute as it amounts to the violation of the copyright
act.

This article deals with the misunderstandings of various Orientalists
on the issue of grammatical shifts arising in Arabic rhetoric; some them
even called these linguistic features as linguistic defects in the Qur'an.
Notable of them are the works of Theodor
Nöldeke, Bell and
Watt, Rudi Paret and John
Burton.

The article deals with various problems raised by the verse 2:217 concerning
the case-ending of the phrase wa'l-masjidi 'l-harami in the
verse. Rudi Paret has called this verse as 'rough' (perhaps taking a clue
from the work of Theodor Nöldeke). Is it an issue of grammar or balaghah?

Professor Mustansir Mir briefly discusses some of the ideas of Imam
Farahi and his student Mawlana Islahi
concerning the structure in the Qur'an.

A more detailed study of their ideas is available in Professor Mir's
book Coherence In The Qur'an. To a considerable
extent, Professor Neal Robinson in his book Discovering
The Qur'an: A Contemporary Approach To A Veiled Text (1996, SCM
Press Ltd.) also deals with the ideas of Imam Farahi and his student Mawlana
Islahi. The reader is also advised to refer to the article
"Islahi's Concept Of Surah
Pairs", The Muslim World, 1983,
Vol.73, No.1, pp. 22-32.

This article deals with the literary aspects and themes of the Qur'anic
story of Joseph. The Qur'anic story is neatly structured on the analogy
of the literary-rhetorical device of al-laff wa 'l-nashr `ala 'l-`aks
(involution and evolution in reverse).

The commentary of the opening Surah of the Qur'an runs into
a few 100 pages. The above article summarizes some of the literary aspects
of Surah Fatihah. Above all it shows that the Surah
itself is a unity.

It is usually assumed that the dotting of the Arabic script began with
the advent of dotting of Qur'anic manuscripts. However, recent observation
on a 70 year old Arabic papyri has shown conclusively that dotting was available
as early as 22 AH, perhaps even earlier.

Review
of The History Of The Qur'anic Text From Revelation
To Compilation: A Comparative Study With The Old And New Testaments
(M. Mustafa al-A`zami, UK Islamic Academy: Leicester, UK) by Murad Wilfried
Hoffman, Muslim World Book Review, 2004, Volume
24 (Issue 4).

A very terse review of Mustafa al-A`zami's recent book on the Qur'an. Shaykh
al-A`zami's work throws new light, especially, on the issues of Qur'an's
compilation, dotting and addition of diacritical marks.